The future and utility of Apple's missing-in-action push notification service …

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It is now nearly five months after Apple originally said it would release push notifications for the iPhone, a service that would allow third parties to send instant SMS-style alerts to their applications on the device. A few iPhone OS updates and many scratched heads later, this feature's utility and Apple's silence on its whereabouts are once again in the limelight. But to discuss iPhone push notifications, we should recap what they actually are and what they mean for the iPhone as a platform.

Announced at WWDC 2008 with the iPhone 3G, push notifications were sold by Steve Jobs as a compromise between allowing third-party apps to run in the background and conserving battery life and performance. While the iPhone is very much a powerful and pocketable phone, it is still a far cry from being a multi-tasking monster that many modern notebook-slinging power users wish it was. Push notifications are indeed a major step towards meeting in the middle, but Apple may need to spend more time to chew all that it bit off.

The fundamental component of this push system is a single process that can run in the background of the iPhone OS and listen for notifications coming from the server, much like the Mail and SMS apps can listen for messages pushed in near real time. The system is designed to allow third-party applications and services to send notifications to an iPhone (such as when someone IMs you, or pings you on a social network), which would then be displayed in an SMS-like popup that allows the user to either act on the message (perhaps by opening an application) or dismiss them into some sort of a queue for taking action later.

This opens up a world of possibilities in terms of allowing the iPhone to integrate with other applications and to become more useful as a device that stays on top of updates. Small, Web-based task management services like Remember the Milk could push notifications with buttons to open the local RtM app or forward the task on to a coworker, instead of simple text messages and e-mail alarms. A little larger, IM services could become much more useful, because users could remain logged on vicariously via these notifications. Quit a chat app with push notifications on your side and alerts of new messages could provide buttons for starting the app back up to reply to a crucial conversation, not to mention the possibility of maintaining consistent logs right on the phone.

Expanding on this potential, home and business security systems could alert users of activity as it happens, and GPS services could notify users of the position of their car or children—the sky is the limit from here. All of this would work over both WiFi and the cellular network, and at WWDC '09, Jobs stated that this system would be open to all developers—provided that their apps pass Apple's cryptic App Store approval process, of course.

To be sure, there are a number of complaints that push notifications do not solve. Third-party music players like Pandora still wouldn't be able to play music in the background like the iPod app, and apps that sync with desktop clients, such as Things, would still need to be started up on an iPhone in order to get up-to-date. Push notifications are a way to instantly pass information from outside services to the iPhone and allow the user to act on it.

Some, like Macworld's Dan Moren, put forth the possibility that Apple could be sitting on push notifications either because they are still too complicated, don't go far enough, or most users simply don't care. After all, Apple's proposition has both notable pros and cons, but iPhone sales don't seem to be hurting much in light of the feature's absence.

Instead of Apple sitting on push notifications, it is perhaps more likely that the feature is alive and well. Apple probably sobered up to the feature's potential after getting inundated with the App Store rush, and realized that it needed to absolutely nail push notifications on day one of its launch. What Apple has essentially proposed is the first extensible push platform that works over a cellular network and is open to any developer—that is no small thing. Apple needs to work with service providers around the world to prepare for this, and it also needs to provide the right balance of access and restrictions to make users happy and prevent malicious developers from having their way. The fallout from the botched MobileMe launch would be akin to your mom complaining on your personal blog compared to what would happen if push notifications crash and burn on millions of iPhones.

The fact that Apple was serious enough about push notification to introduce it to the world at WWDC 2008 is a good (though admittedly not prophetic) sign that the feature is still on its way. Good things come to those who wait.